Koneko
by anahita
Summary: *12/03 Ch. 7 added* A troubled Eiri meets an equally troubled youth... (AU, Yuki x Shuichi, Tohma + Yuki)
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own these boys and I'm broke. Don't sue me.

Koneko  
By Anahita (psychobishojo@aol.com)

Chapter 1

This was turning out to be a most unpleasant day, Eiri thought to himself as he unceremoniously fell onto an empty park bench and closed his eyes. After the day he had, he wanted nothing more than to have a couple moments of peace and quiet at the park.

His park, he amended the thought as he took a long, deep drag from the cigarette between his lips. He couldn't count the number of times he would sit on that same bench and just watch the random faces walk past him. Sometimes in order to lift his mood, he would study them and use them as subjects for his stories. But even that was not possible now as the park was completely empty and desolate at this late hour, Eiri realized sadly as he looked down the cobblestone path in front of him, his mind suddenly overcome with memories of countless lovers, young and old alike, walking arm-in-arm down that path, whispering empty promises of eternal love and happiness to each other.

One of his girlfriends once called him a fraud. He tried to remember which one it was, and eventually narrowed down the choice between the French girl and the pre-med student with curly hair. It really didn't matter to him, he realized as he soon gave up on that endeavor. Faces and names of all the girls he was involved with in the past blurred into one another so much that they appeared one and the same. He wasn't sure he even cared anymore. Her name and face was not important. It was her words that stuck with him. On the day he broke up with her, she called him a fraud, a liar and a hypocrite for writing of love and tenderness when he had none of it to give.

He wondered sometimes how that girl was doing? Was she married now? Did she find the love and tenderness that he was unable to give to her? Would she feel the same when her Prince tired of her and left her for another?

The bitch had no right to judge him. He never promised her something he was unable to give. He was always honest, and that was far nobler of him than any of the men that walked past him on that walkway, oblivious to everything in the world save the woman on their arm. He doubted that any of them had found true happiness with one another. Sooner or later they would all end up the same, alone, betrayed and weary of it all. No, he realized, he was anything but a hypocrite. He gave those girls more than they could dream of getting with another man. He gave them the eternal love they craved. He preserved their love and wrote about the fairy tale hopes and dreams that these girls so desired.

Damn it. He was depressed now. Not that he was surprised, seeing Mika always did this to him.

**

"So how are things going between you and that new girl you have been seeing?" Mika asked casually over the dinner they had at the small Italian restaurant she was rather fond of, earlier that evening.

"They're not." Eiri responded dryly between forkfuls of pasta. "I broke up with her yesterday."

Mika didn't say anything at first. But she really didn't have to. The deep, exasperated exhalation of breath did a more than adequate job of projecting her disapproval.

"So what was the problem this time?" She finally asked, coldly. "Were her feet too big? Did she breathe through her mouth when she slept? Was that it?"

"Mika"

"No, wait. Let me guess." She interrupted her younger brother as she let the utensils drop out of her hands, hitting the plate in front of her with a loud 'clink'. "She stole your lucky pen. That's why you broke things off with her, wasn't it?"

"I found her poking holes in her fucking diaphragm, if you must know." Eiri spat out with a tone of barely restrained contempt. 

Immediately, Mika's face turned crimson as she looked down, not wanting to see the look of pure hatred in her brother's eyes. She hated that look, especially when she was the cause of it. "I'm sorry." She said in a voice barely above a whisper.

As he curbed his anger, Eiri noticed that the restaurant had become awfully quiet all of the sudden. He remembered that earlier he did raise his voice a bit, and he smiled when he realized that the other diners were probably listening in on their conversation. Not that he cared much. He didn't mind giving people a little drama every now and then. He was a writer after all. He thrived on such things.

"I worry about you." Mika continued. "I just want you to be happy and it kills me when I don't see the same from you."

"Contrary to what you may think, you're not my mother. And the way I live makes me happy, whether you want to believe it or not."

"I know you. And what you say is not how you feel in your heart. You can say words to the contrary, but your eyes betray your true feelings."

"Listen Mika. My life is not your cross to bear. And truthfully, I think you should concern yourself more with meeting your husband's needs before your marriage of convenience becomes a bit inconvenient for him."

He regretted those words as soon as they left his lips. Mika looked at him as if she had been slapped in the face.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that"

"It's okay." She interrupted and continued eating without looking him in the face.

That was pretty much the end of any meaningful conversation they would have that evening. Dinner eventually ended and Mika offered to give Eiri a ride home. He refused. He had a couple errands to run and besides, the restaurant was within walking distance of his loft.

"Worried about my happiness" He mumbled to himself as he pulled out a small, amber colored bottle out of his coat pocket and looked at it.

That was one good thing about his sister. Spending time with her never failed to remind him to get a refill on his anti-depressants. Yeah, she sure takes care of that. Although he never told Mika, the truth was that his happiness revolved solely around numbing the pain that he had to live with. He could never share that with his sister. She worried about him enough as it was. As long as he could live with curbing his depression, he didn't need anything else. He didn't need love. He didn't need affection. He didn't need

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the loud crashing sound of a trashcan being overturned to his right. He quickly turned his head to see what the source of the commotion was and he was rewarded with the most absurd sight he had ever had the privilege of seeing in all his twenty-two years on that planet.

There at the site of the accident were a small gray cat and a boy who appeared to be in his late teens hissing at one another.

Eiri stared incredulously as he rose from his park bench to get a better view of the spectacle that was taking place before his eyes.

The cat was small and scrawny, so thin that it was possible to see the outline of its ribs through its skin. The boy was even smaller and scrawnier compared to other boys his age, at least , and he was dressed in cut off shorts and a blue tank top. His hair was bight pink and quite disheveled. The two creatures appeared to be fighting over a half eaten sandwich that they had discovered in the trash.

"Are you out of your mind?" Eiri shouted out, not bothering to disguise the tone of disgust in his voice.

The boy flinched and looked over at the source of the voice while the cat, seeing an opportunity, grabbed the sandwich and ran off into the trees.

The boy whined as he saw his meal disappear into the pitch-black woods before him, then he looked up at the man who had just interrupted him.

'That's disgusting, eating food out of the trash like that, do you want to get a disease or something?" Eiri continued, feeling a bit uncomfortable as the boy did not do anything to reply. He simply stared at him with a look on his face that unsettled Eiri to the core of his being.

"Now go on back to your house before I call the police and they haul you away." Eiri said, now truly uncomfortable with the way the boy was looking at him.

Luckily for him, the boy apparently believed his threat, because he quickly turned and ran off into the darkness as well.

Eiri stood there for a moment to regain his composure. He then chuckled, shaking his head at the whole ridiculousness of the situation as he lit another cigarette and continued his way home.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

There's a spoiler warning for this chapter. There is a mention of a significant event that took place in Yuki's past. 

  
Koneko  
By Anahita (psychobishojo@aol.com)  
Ch. 2

The moment Eiri awoke, he knew that something was out of the ordinary. The smell of coffee brewing and eggs cooking, accompanied by the soft male voice singing slightly off key along to some random pop song that was playing on the radio alerted him to that fact. As he slowly regained his consciousness, his mind registered the owner of that voice and Eiri couldn't help but groan.

"SeguchiDamn it!" He mumbled somewhat less than enthusiastically as he rolled out of bed and began to change.

Seguchi Tohma, Mika's husband and Eiri's brother-in-law was probably the last person Eiri wanted to deal with at that moment. If at all possible, he was even more infuriating than Mika. He could deal with Mika's constant meddling and hassling. Tohma's meddling and hassling was just as intense. But at least with Mika, he was pretty sure she was sincere since she was his older sister. And, at least with Mika, he was 99% certain that she wasn't trying to get into his pants. Unfortunately, that was something he couldn't say for sure about her husband.

"Good morning, Eiri-san!" The soft-spoken blond haired man dressed in a frilly pink apron sang cheerfully as he looked over at his somber looking brother-in-law who had just entered the kitchen. Eiri simply walked past the older man and began to pour a cup of coffee without acknowledging him.

"I have got to get the locks changed." Eiri finally answered loud enough for Tohma to hear as he brought the cup to his lips and immediately grimaced.

"Changed my coffee to decaf again?" He asked as he poured the remaining liquid in the cup down the sink.

"You've been so high strung lately, Eiri-san. And all that extra caffeine is hardly helping your health."

"That's not your concern." Eiri answered, although he knew very well that any protests from him would fall on deaf ears where Tohma and Mika were concerned. He sat down at the kitchen table and put his head down to rest his cheek against the smooth surface of the table below.

"Mika was crying last night."

"Mika is a big girl. If I did something to make her cry, she should have come here and told me herself." 

"You know she would never be able to do that. She's quite stubborn with hiding her emotions from people. It's one of the charming Uesugi traits, after all." Tohma said with a slightly more than friendly smile as he placed a plate of eggs and ham in front of Eiri and sat across from the younger man.

Eiri had a couple forkfuls of the eggs before he got up to grab a beer from the refrigerator to wash the food down with. Tohma simply shook his head.

"Do you care to tell me what happened to make her so upset, Eiri-san?"

"She couldn't handle hearing the truth, I suppose." Eiri answered bitterly.

"And what truth would that be, Eiri-san?"

Eiri sighed and rubbed his forehead with his the palm of his hand. He really didn't need to rehash the same conversation again. "That there are far more pressing matters that the two of you should be concerning yourselves with."

Tohma looked over at his younger brother-in-law and flashed him his usual smile. Eiri just rolled his eyes in response.

"Are you doing anything special today?"

"Nothing in particular."

"Good. Because I want to spend the day with you."

Eiri nearly choked on his mouthful of food. "I don't need a fucking babysitter!"

"We'll have lunch in that park that you like to spend time in, and then maybe we can catch a movie later on." Tohma continued, lightly dabbling a napkin against his lips, as if he was completely oblivious to Eiri's obvious disapproval of the idea.

"Will you stop ignoring me for once? I said no! Go back to your work, and leave me in peace to do mine!"

"Please Eiri-san, don't be like this." Tohma said as he continued to give the younger man the same sickening smile as earlier. And the way he was looking at him made Eiri's stomach turn. Did the man have no shame at all? "I told Mika I would do this. You've been so cold and distant lately. Please, just let me take care of you, just for today. Just for a couple hours at least."

"Go back to work. I don't particularly feel like being sociable right now." Eiri stood up and threw the food that remained on his plate in the trash. He found himself suddenly without an appetite.

"We used to be so close, Eiri-san. What happened to change all that?"

God, he was still looking at him like that. It made his skin crawl. The husband of his sister no less! The look was almost like the look that the filthy boy he saw last night was giving to him Oh goodness, what brought that on? Why would he be thinking of some random street punk he found digging for food in the trash?

Eiri sighed, "I'll stay with you until lunch. Then you leave me alone. And I don't want to discuss any aspect of my personal life with you."

"Fair enough."

+

"Such a lovely day for a picnic." Tohma commented cheerfully as he sat down on the blanket and began to unpack their food. Eiri simply answered with an inarticulate grunt. "Would you like a sandwich?"

"I'll pass. I'm not very hungry right now."

Tohma replied with a disapproving glance. "You look pale and appear to be losing weight."

"I said I don't want to discuss anything about me, remember?" Eiri replied as he lit a cigarette and looked to the side, unaware that he was glancing out at the bench where he was seated the previous night. It was currently inhabited by a frazzled looking woman who was trying to placate two screaming children that couldn't have been more than four or five years old. He felt like that woman.

"Honestly, Eiri-san. Sometimes I think that you're just as bad as those two children over there, throwing a temper tantrum and driving your parents to insanity." Eiri didn't bother to acknowledge his words. At that moment, he was too busy locking gazes with a certain scrawny, pink-haired boy that he had seen earlier that night. The boy was standing in the same vicinity where Eiri found him the night before, dressed in the same tattered clothes while he leaned against a tree. God, the boy was giving him that look again.

"Is that anyone you know, Eiri-san?"

"Not particularly. Is it normal for kids to color their hair like that these days?" Eiri replied.

"Some, I suppose. You know how teenagers are. Always doing outlandish things to get a rise out of their parents."

"I suppose." Eiri continued to keep eye contact with the boy.

"Anyway. Please stop punishing yourself because of what happened in the past. You need to let go, Eiri-san." Tohma said in a tone that was slightly louder than a whisper as he leaned forward and placed a hand on the younger man's thigh, slightly above his knee.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? Get your hand off of me!" Eiri jumped back as Tohma approached him in a manner that was far more intimate than he liked. In response, Tohma simply shook his head and looked at the younger man with eyes that projected a look of both sympathy and pity.

"If I had the power, I would take back that day, and kill him for you with my own hands. You do realize that, don't you?" Tohma cupped Eiri's chin with his hand and turned his head to face him.

"I need some water for my pills" Eiri said after a long pause.

Tohma stood up. "I'll go buy a bottle for you." He said as he gently placed a hand on Eiri's shoulder. He then hesitated a moment before he leaned down to press a gentle kiss on Eiri's right temple. Eiri didn't respond to the kiss, either positively or negatively.

When Tohma was gone, Eiri fell onto his back and threw an arm over his eyes to shade them from the sun. This day was turning out to be even worse than yesterday. He considered his options. Now that his sister and brother-in-law were becoming more of a liability than a nuisance for him, he pondered the feasibility of moving out of the country. He could write anywhere, there was nothing keeping him there in Japan. Only family that he didn't quite care for much.

Better keep it a secret. He didn't have a doubt in his mind that wherever he moved, Mika and Tohma would buy a house within 10 kilometers in order to keep a better eye on him.

He would have to run away

Not a bad idea, he thought to himself.

Free to live a life for himself without his smothering sister and obsessive brother in law. Sounds divine.

Now he was hungry, he realized.

Eiri opened his eyes and sat up, hoping to grab a quick bite before Tohma came back but had found that the picnic basket had disappeared.

Eiri looked around, puzzled. What kind of person would wait for him to be off guard before sneaking up and

The tree against which that boy was leaning was now empty.

"That little bastard." Eiri spoke out loud.

  
TBC


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own these boys and I'm broke. Don't sue me (please?)  
  
  
  
Koneko  
By Anahita (psychobishojo@aol.com)  
  
  
Chapter 3  
  
He awoke with a start, his breathing was forced and ragged, his heart was racing violently within his chest, and his shirt was drenched with perspiration. Disoriented, he allowed himself a moment just to let his body to regain its composure.  
  
Another night, he realized, another bout with those wicked demons that controlled his dreams. Like usual, he couldn't remember anything about the nightmare that he had just awakened from. He never did. Every time this happened, he would only awake to find himself in that confused state and figured that whatever he was dreaming about wasn't pleasant. That was probably a good thing. Lord knows that he didn't need yet another source of stress in his life.  
  
He looked around the room to study his surroundings. He was in the familiar confines of his office, seated in his black leather chair in front of his laptop, which was still turned on and faithfully humming, as it patiently waited for the writer to put it to some use. To his left there was a mug of coffee, half filled with the black liquid that had since gone cold. Even caffeine didn't have an effect anymore, he thought incredulously as he shook his head and rubbed the sleep from his weary eyes.  
  
It was evident that he had fallen asleep while working. Again. That was the third time this month that it had happened. He could barely function socially as it was; now he wasn't able to work either? Damn, he needed a vacation. Badly.  
  
Either that, or a girlfriend, he considered that thought for a fraction of a second.  
  
Yeah right, he thought bitterly. No point in going through that again, since all those girls wanted was his writer persona that the marketing bitches from his publisher sold to the mass public, not his true self. They wanted Yuki Eiri, the man he was truly beginning to despise, he thought as he scanned the text that he had written earlier on his laptop before falling asleep.  
  
Garbage. Pure rubbish. He thought to himself before shutting down the word processor without bothering to save his work.  
  
He had a deadline approaching, but that was the last thing on his mind at that moment. His editor would probably be upset, but he couldn't muster the effort to care about that. He was Yuki Eiri; he made his own goddamn deadlines.  
  
With a groan, he stood up and stumbled over to the bathroom. Squinting his eyes a bit as he turned on overhead light.  
  
Damn, he looked like a mess, he thought as he looked at his tired reflection in the mirror. No wonder Mika was always hounding him to take care of himself. His eyes were painfully raw and bloodshot, surrounded by dark circles that betrayed his lack of sleep. His complexion was sallow, and his chin was sporting stubble several days old. He looked like a tired old man. He felt like a tired old man, much older than his actual age of 22, at least.  
  
He turned on the faucet and splashed his face with cold water. The time on his watch read 1:32a.m, but he doubted that he would be able to fall asleep anymore that night. He needed air. He needed to get out of his apartment.  
  
+  
  
For the first time since he could remember, the boy was comfortable. Sure, he was still sleeping on the cold wet ground, with a pitch-black ceiling of stars above, but his stomach was full, and he didn't have to worry about the gnawing ache of hunger that always plagued him. At least he would get a decent night sleep for once. And his spot underneath the large tree in that park was nice and quiet. He really couldn't ask for much more, since his situation could be so much worse…  
  
The food wasn't all that good, actually. Bland and really needing some salt, but when you're used to fighting over food in garbage cans against feral cats, you really can't complain. Besides, it was definitely worth it just to see the look on that mean blond guy's face when he opened his eyes and found all of his food had disappeared, he thought as he pictured that man's face. He giggled as he recalled that scene that took place earlier.  
  
Serves him right for making him lose dinner the night before! The boy thought with a chuckle as he pulled his long pale legs closer to his body and tried to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in. But sleep wouldn't come to him. Every time he closed his eyes, he would think of that guy; the guy who yelled at him.  
  
He couldn't stop thinking about him. And truth be told, he wasn't sure if he wanted to stop thinking about him. It didn't help much that he looked like someone he knew. And not just anyone either, the blond man bore a resemblance to someone he knew once, someone who actually cared about him for a short while, many years ago.  
  
He sighed sadly. He hated memories like that. He hated thinking about the small, short periods of happiness that he witnessed. It hurt his heart to remember. He didn't like thinking of impossible things that he could never have. But his mind did not cooperate and continued to supply his mind with thoughts of the guy, and with it, memories of the life he once knew, memories of a life he desperately craved.  
  
Oh well, there was no sense in brooding over that now. There was only one thing he could do to remedy the situation. Avoid seeing that mean guy again. This meant that he would have to find another place to stay, or better yet, another Master to take him in of course. But he would deal with that later. At that moment, he needed to regain his energy more than anything else. And with that thought, he yawned deeply and closed his eyes as he felt the heavy curtain of slumber slowly draw closed on his conscious.  
  
+  
  
"Fancy seeing you here." A voice, cold and very familiar, shook him free of sleep.  
  
The boy opened his eyes and looked up. His breath caught in his throat. He was hoping against hope that the voice was merely a figment of his imagination, a product of a bad dream that would simply vanish and be forgotten when he awoke, but the middle-aged man standing before him proved otherwise.  
  
"Ma…" He began, as he was about to instinctively refer to the man as 'Master', but he was quickly interrupted.  
  
"I recall that you mentioned before leaving that you had a better place to be? Surely you didn't mean here!" He said sarcastically, the gruff tone in his voice, and the memories associated with it, threatening to make the pink-haired boy sick to his stomach.  
  
"I did. It's just that…" He tried to explain.  
  
"It hardly looks like you've been taking care of yourself either. You are absolutely filthy!"  
  
The boy looked away, forcing himself to break his gaze from those ugly, tar-black eyes that he despised more than anything else in the world. He didn't trust himself around his former masters. He was always so weak as to let them do whatever they wanted to him that he forced himself to look away before he did something, or said something that he would regret. "It's not your concern anymore." The boy said defiantly. He smiled; quite surprised that he actually had the nerve to stand up to his former owner.  
  
But his former Master would not give up that quickly. He sensed the man kneel down beside him and cringed when he felt him place a hand on his shoulder. "You are in no position to take care of yourself under these circumstances. You're cold, you're dirty, and you're starving. Let me take care of you again." He felt the man lean in closer so that he could smell the scent of tobacco on his breath. "That's a good boy…" He whispered, as the boy didn't appear to resist him at first. He placed a large calloused hand on the boy's bare thigh and slowly moved it up, making sure that his little pet knew full well what his intentions were. "My pretty kitten…" He drawled into the teenager's ear.  
  
"No!" Blue eyes snapped wide open and he cried out. "No more!" He roughly pushed the man aside.  
  
"You little bitch!" The man didn't appreciate pets that defied him. Especially the one sitting before him right at that moment. As punishment, he punched the boy roughly across his left cheek, hitting him with such force that knocked him flat on his back. The teen whimpered and closed his eyes as he felt a trickle of blood on his lip. "You dare treat your Master with such disrespect?" Within a heartbeat, the man was on him, straddling his hips and roughly pinning his arms to the ground. "It appears that you forgot some of your training. Oh well, I suppose that I will have to teach you again!"  
  
"No!!!" He squealed as he struggled in vain to break free from the older man's clutches. It was a futile effort. He was tired and weak compared to the older man who was athletic as always. He didn't stand a chance.  
  
Oh well, no point in prolonging the inevitable. Besides, this former Master especially liked making it painful if he resisted. He sighed sadly as he willed his body to cease fighting.  
  
"What do you think you're doing?" The boy's eyes opened suddenly… Another voice? And why did it sound so familiar. Something was definitely amiss, he realized when he felt his master stop, and he looked up to stare incredulously into cold hazel eyes of the man who he seemed to keep crossing paths with.  
  
"None of your damn business. I paid for him!" Master snapped. "I am taking what is mine, so why don't you get lost before I break your jaw?"  
  
"He's not yours anymore. Once his contract was up, he left you." The boy observed all this quietly. How did he know all this? Was he watching them? "I am his Master now, so why don't you take your filthy paws off of him before I call the police, you dirty pedophile." The blond man continued.  
  
"YOU'RE his Master now?"  
  
"That's what I said, wasn't it?"  
  
The older man snarled. He didn't like having his prizes snatched away from him like that, but it couldn't be helped. He looked at the teenager lying beneath him, and then at the interloper who had just interrupted them.  
  
"Really. Well then." The boy sighed in relief as he felt his former Master's weight lifted off of him. "I'll let you have him back. Although I must say that you haven't been taking care of your little pet well. Just look at him." He ran a hand down the side of the stunned teenager's face before grabbing his chin roughly and crushing their lips together. When he broke the kiss moments later, the boy looked terrified and disgusted. He quickly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The man laughed. "Well then, my little kitten, I suppose this is goodbye for now. I'll just have to wait until he tires of you and throws you out in the street, I suppose, then I can claim you again."  
  
And with that, he walked away.  
  
Once they were alone, the two men simply looked at each other without saying a word.  
  
"Are you okay?" Eiri asked. He was answered with a nod and a smile.  
  
"Thank you for that."  
  
"He was hurting you." Eiri said as if he was trying to justify his actions to the both of them. "Anyway, you really shouldn't be out here. You'll risk getting caught by people like that." Eiri turned around and began to walk away before he added, "I don't know what the deal is with you, but you should go home. Whatever happened, it's not worth it for you to live like this."  
  
And with those words, the boy watched him, that stranger that felt so familiar to him, walk off into the cold black night.  
  
+  
  
When Eiri arrived home, it was almost 2:30. And the small adventure he had proved exactly what was needed to tire him out again, he thought as he shrugged off his jacket.  
  
That poor kid… Eiri thought to himself, still haunted by the image of that scrawny kid about to be raped. Oh well, it wasn't his problem. And he did what he could, after all. He dismissed that thought as he began to make his way to his bedroom. But before he could take a single step, he was interrupted with a light tapping on the door.  
  
He rolled his eyes. He knew exactly who it was as well. Of course, Mika was probably trying to call him while he was out and panicked when he wouldn't answer his phone. It's not like she could go two hours without checking up on him!  
  
Fuck. He did not need that right now!  
  
"What the hell do you want?" He snapped as he opened the door, expecting to see his sister on the other side, giving him her typical disapproving look.  
  
He froze as he stared into the brightest pair of blue-violet eyes he had ever seen. It dawned on him that he had been followed.  
  
  
  
TBC… 


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own these boys and I'm broke. Don't sue me. (Please?) 

Koneko  
By Anahita (psychobishojo@aol.com)

Chapter 4

  
"I know about the deadline." Eiri groaned, still half asleep as he held the receiver to his ear while the voice on the other end - the voice of his editor proceeded to greet him that morning by chewing him out.

"Look, a couple things came up." He tried to explain to the frantic voice on the other end that really wasn't listening to him in the first place. Not really a concern to him, since he really wasn't listening to her either.

"Okay, by Friday then." Eiri yawned, "I'll talk to you then." He added before hanging up.

That was a terrible way to begin the morning, he thought as he rolled out of bed and stumbled over to his laptop without bothering to change or wash up first. He couldn't really blame the woman; he did have a deadline that he missed. He couldn't deny that had been slacking off of late.

It couldn't be helped. He realized, defeated as he stared at the blank screen of his word processor for several minutes. 

He was in a slump. It was as simple as that. His mind was in no mood to be creative of late.

Muttering a curse, Eiri stood up and made his way to the kitchen. After the sleepless night he had, he really couldn't expect himself to function without his morning nicotine fix. And food sounded like an appealing idea as well.

He made his way to the kitchen as he did every day, without incident, until his eyes wandered to the couch where they made contact with two impossible large, blue-violet orbs staring at him from under a thatch of pink hair.

Sometimes, even after he pretty much figured out all there was to know about his own person, Eiri still managed to surprise himself once in a while. Like that previous night, he didn't know why he didn't politely turn the boy away, or even shut the door in his face without saying a word. He didn't know why he stepped aside and invited that strange, pink-haired creature into his home. He didn't know why he told the kid to take a seat on his couch while he made a trip to the kitchen to put together an ice pack. The bruise on his face from where the older man struck him had stained his otherwise flawless porcelain-like skin, a deep-red discoloration spreading from the bridge of his nose to his ear. It must have been painful, Eiri thought, sympathetically. And when he returned to his living room, to find that his houseguest had already fallen asleep on his couch, he didn't know why we pulled out a spare pillow and blanket out of his closet to cover him with.

That morning, however, sleep deprived as he was, not to mention being forcefully awakened by the shrill, harpy-like voice of his hysterical editor, Eiri remembered how he was supposed to react in the first place.

"Did you sleep well?" The kid asked.

Eiri's glare hardened, wondering what exactly possessed him to allow some street kid into his home, especially after getting a glimpse of the boy's lifestyle. "Eat, then take a shower. I'll take you to the social services office this afternoon." He growled, making a mental note to spray the couch down with flea-repellent later, when his guest was gone.

Suddenly, the serene, cheerful look on the boys face disappeared. "Okay." He simply said, not bothering to disguise the tone of defeat and disappointment in his voice.

~

"Eat well, this may be your last decent meal in a while, Kid." Eiri commented over breakfast.

"Hm?" The boy replied, taking a break from devouring the food in front of him, his check puffed out comically from all the food that he had packed away in his mouth.

"I'm going to drop you off at the social services building. They'll know what to do with you there." Eiri repeated.

The boy's serene and satisfied demeanor shattered with those words. "But you said you'd be my Master"

"You're going on about that again? I only said what I had to do to get you away from that guy who was attacking you." Eiri explained. "You didn't take me seriously, did you? Look, I'm really not in a position to be able to take care of you, Kid."

"Shuichi." He simply said as he mindlessly poked at the small amount of food that remained in front of him.

"What?"

"My name. It's Shuichi." He repeated.

His host did not say anything; he just studied him curiously for another moment before he resumed eating.

The boy turned his gaze downward to the plate of food in front of him, not wanting the man to see the look of disappointment on his face. "They won't take me" He mumbled as he began to pick at his food once again.

Eiri didn't respond. He didn't have the time or energy to argue with Shuichi about that. They continued their meal in silence. 

Eiri finished first. "There are some towels in the bathroom. You wash up first. You're absolutely filthy." He said as he wiped his mouth before standing up to head back to his bedroom, in attempt to get some work done.

"'K." Shuichi mumbled dejectedly as he watched the man walk out of the dining area and disappear behind a corner. He should have figured that the man's surprising kindness was simply too good to be true.

~

  
Shuichi remained in the shower far longer than was necessary. Having had to live on the streets for some time, he appreciated the opportunity to just linger under the hot mist, to lazily run the bar of soap across his body and let it wash away the dirt and grime of disappointment, despair, and hopelessness.

After about 45 minutes, he turned off the water, reminding himself of the fact that the blond man had no intention of keeping him, and that he had no right to savor tiny crumbs of comfort that were being offered to him. Within a few hours, he would be back on the street, at the mercy of whoever showed up to claim him.

Still soaking wet, he stepped out of the shower and rummaged around a linen closet in search of a towel, when he heard the doorbell ring.

And ring again and again.

He was puzzled as he stepped out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a beige towel wrapped around his waist, his hair still soaking wet. Why wasn't anyone answering?

He considered going to the man's room to tell him about the visitor at the door, but thought better of the idea. He was most likely asleep, and Shuichi was certain that he would not be happy if he were to be disturbed.

As the doorbell rang a fifth time, Shuichi decided to answer. The least he could do was to politely inform whoever was at the door that the occupant of that apartment was not available. But when he answered the door and saw the glare of the man standing on the other side, his powers of speech suddenly became useless.

He was blond as well, slight of build, and otherwise harmless looking, except for the glare which could have brought him to his knees.

"Where is Eiri?" He asked in a surprisingly soft-spoken tone of voice that was even icier than his host's.

Eiri. So the man had a name after all.

"He's still asleep"

"Not anymore he isn't." Shuichi felt a hand placed firmly on his still damp shoulder and push him aside. He looked up and was surprised to find his host standing there, changed out of his sleeping clothes and cleaned up as well. "Seguchi. Whatever brings you here at this early hour?"

"I need to talk to you, Eiri-san." The visitor spoke as he let himself into the apartment.

"Well isn't that a surprise." Eiri mumbled under his breath, as he watched Tohma invite himself yet again into his home and take a seat on the edge of his leather sofa. 

Eiri couldn't help but smile. There was only one way to interpret the scene before him, and judging by Tohma's deathly glare that he shot at the boy, it appeared that Tohma was thinking just that. Eiri then turned to address the still wet, half-naked boy standing next to him.

"Shuichi, I need to talk to this man for a few minutes, why don't you go in into my room and put on some of my clean clothes?" He instructed, making a note to refer to the boy the most informal terms as possible.

"Um.. Okay." He answered timidly as he turned to make his way to the bedroom, and away from the homicidal glare that the new guy was giving him.

"Who is he?" Tohma asked.

"Just some kid I picked up last night."

"You picked up a hustler?"

"Please, Seguchi, you make it sound so seedy. He had needs; I had needs; we satisfied our needs together. Surely there's no crime in that?"

"You could have caught some disease!"

"Listen, Seguchi, who I fuck is none of your business. Remember that. And do you mind telling me why you have decided to grace me with your presence today?"

"Come to lunch with us."

Eiri laughed. "You know, I'm not a child. I'm perfectly capable of feeding myself without you having to tie the bib around my neck or wipe the drool off my chin."

"Mika and I have some good news that we want to share with you, actually. Please."

Eiri rolled his eyes. "Fine. Just let me get ready." He said as he made his way to the bedroom to grab a jacket. It couldn't be too bad, since apparently for once, he was not going to be the focus of one of Tohma and Mika's 'we love you and we're worried about you' lunches.

He stopped in his tracks when he reached the wide open door to his bedroom and got an eyeful of his houseguest. Shuichi was standing at his closet, completely nude, with his back to him, thankfully.

From behind, he looks like a woman. Eiri reassured himself, trying to think up any excuse possible for the heat that rose to his face, for the quickened breath and racing heartbeat. He barely had any muscle on that body of his, and was still young enough so that his body hadn't been exposed to the wash of hormones that would metamorphose him from a boy to a man. That was all there was to it. Nothing more.

Hating himself for his body's response, Eiri quickly got his hormones in check and walked to the dresser, where he pulled out a pair of boxers and a t-shirt, and threw them at Shuichi without looking at him, for fear that his body would betray him once again.

"Put these on," He spat.

"Thank you." Shuichi said as he picked up the offered clothes and began to put on the shirt first.

"I'm going out with Tohma. Get ready, because when I get back, I'll deal with you."

Shuichi sighed before his emotions got the best of him. Without thinking of it, he threw himself on Eiri's bed. "There's no need for you to take me to social services. My owner's phone number is right here!" Shuichi said as he propped himself up onto his elbows and spread his legs slightly to reveal a small tattoo on his inner thigh of his right leg. Eiri gasped as he got more of an eyeful than he ever wanted of another man, wearing nothing below the waist, lying on his bed, legs spread apart And then his eyes caught the small tattoo, drawn in crimson ink on that pale beige skin on his, simply a series of numbers, marking the boy as the property of another.

Perhaps it was the sudden shock of the boy's actions that kept Eiri from completely losing control. He turned his head, to avoid looking at Shuichi any further, grabbed the item he had been looking for in the first place, and turned to walk out of the room.

"This will make it easier. Why don't you give him a call and have him pick you up while I'm gone?" Eiri suggested as he left the room, leaving a stunned, half naked teenager in shock.

~

"Where did you find him?"

"Look, I mentioned before, my personal life is not something you should concern yourself with."

"He looks like a child. How old is he?"

"Eighteen." Eiri lied; he wasn't sure exactly how old the kid was

"Did you at least use protection?"

"Actually, yes, even though he was on the pill, I pulled out at the last second just to be on the safe side."

"I'm serious, Eiri."

"So am I. If you don't drop this right now, I'm leaving this car and will walk back home."

"I'm sorry. You're absolutely correct. Your intimate life is not something I should concern myself with."

"Thank you." Eiri said as he pushed in the knob of the cigarette lighter and rummaged around his coat pocket for his smokes.

"Please don't do that."

Eiri rolled his eyes.

"So where is Mika anyway?" Eiri asked, thinking it might be pleasant to make some small talk.

"At a doctors appointment. We will be picking her up on our way to the restaurant."

"Ah." Eiri simply said.

"Have you always been interested in men?"

"Not particularly. He just caught my eye."

"Ah."

"Why is she at the doctor's?"

Tohma smiled. "It has to do with the news we want to share with you."

"She's dying?"

"No."

"You're getting divorced?"

"No."

"You're moving to New York?"

"No, just wait and let her tell you."

"She's pregnant?"

""

Eiri's eyes went wide. "That's it?" he laughed.

"Don't tell her that you know."

"God damn it, I can't believe you dragged me clear across town just to tell me that you turkey-basted my sister."

"Don't be vulgar, Eiri-san."

"Why this? Why now?"

"You're not happy for us?"

"Of course I'm happy for you. It's wonderful that you'll now have a little spawn to grant your marriage a little semblance of legitimacy."

"I'm glad to see that your newly found happiness with that boy-whore of yours back in your apartment hasn't diminished your ability to be so incredibly cruel, Eiri-san."

"How am I being cruel? Are you trying to say that I'm wrong about you and my sister?"

Tohma pulled over to the curb, knowing that it wasn't smart to drive under the current circumstances. "I love your sister."

"So you're saying that you're not attracted to me?"

"I didn't say that."

Eiri gasped as he felt a hand lightly touch his thigh, he turned his head to find Tohma leaning over his car seat to situate himself very uncomfortably in Eiri's personal space.

"I love you as well, Eiri-san." He whispered as he slowly moved in to lightly touch his Eiri's lips with his own.

He didn't expect Eiri to respond as he did. He didn't expect the younger man to close his eyes for him, to part his lips for him, to moan into the kiss so earnestly or to violently ram his fist against the side of his head a moment later.

The two men simply looked at each other for a moment, as if trying to regain their senses. Tohma looked sad and disappointed, yet slightly hopeful. Eiri looked furious and confused.

"I'm sorry for that, Eiri-san." Tohma simply said as he straightened himself in his seat and started the car's engine once again.

  
TBC

  
Ack, I want to say sorry for the delay on this one. A few things came up (life, work, stupid plot bunnies that just wouldn't leave me alone ^_~ ) But I want to thank all of you who asked me to continue this, despite the long delay. Also, I know that Shuichi is a little OOC here. That will change soon (although, the story being what it is, he's just not going to be as genki and cheerful as he is in the series, sorry)


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own these boys and I'm broke. Don't sue me. (Please?) 

  
Koneko  
By Anahita (psychobishojo@aol.com)

  
Chapter 5

Eiri felt surprisingly apathetic, and that thought annoyed him somewhat. He figured that he should have felt disgusted, angry, saddened, hell, he would even take flattered! But as he sat there, at the small café table, seated across from his gushing sister and brother in law, he just couldn't muster the energy to feel anything at all.

He was pathetic. Not twenty minutes earlier, Tohma was kissing him. No more than that, he was sucking on his goddamn tongue! He declared his love for him! Not that Eiri was surprised, he had Tohma figured out for a while, and he was almost certain that Mika herself was aware of Tohma's feelings for him as well, but as the happy couple, the soon-to-be new parents sat there, so close to one another, Tohma's hand placed possessively on Mika's, their fingers so tenderly intertwined Eiri wasn't sure what to feel anymore. Should he be furious at Tohma for living a lie and dragging Mika into it? Should he feel relieved that with Mika's newly announced pregnancy, Tohma would spend more time with his wife and less time hounding him, would Mika begin to concentrate more on caring for the life inside of her rather than worrying herself senseless about his life? Should he share their happiness, or even feel a little saddened by the fact that he would no longer be the focus of their attention? He wanted to feel something. Common sense told him that he should have anything other that the disinterested indifference that he felt at the moment. 

He blocked the urge to glance down at his watch for fear that it would reveal his boredom to his well-meaning family. So instead, he took part in their conversation. He laughed with them, he joked about how he could tell something wasn't right because Mika was getting a little thick around the middle, when all the while he wanted nothing more than to scream, to ram his fist into the side of a building, to be able to feel anything other than that quiet nothingness.

And finally, he just couldn't take anymore of their presence, of that fabricated affection and happiness that they displayed.

"It's been great, but I really need to be have to be going. I have work that I need to get caught up on." Eiri said as he pushed away his barely touched plate of food and rose to his feet.

"Would you like us to give you a ride home?" Mika asked as she stood up as well.

"No thank you. It's a nice day today. I think I'll take the bus back and walk a little." He declined right before the party said their goodbyes and Eiri turned to walk off.

"He was acting a little off today." Mika commented to her husband.

"Do you think so?"

"Yeah, like he had something on his mind the whole time, and barely registered the fact that we were sitting here across from him."

~

How was it possible, for people to look so genuinely satisfied in an obviously flawed relationship? Eiri thought to himself as he put on his sunglasses and made his way down the busy urban walkway, sneering to himself as he made his way past a blissfully ignorant couple who was strolling along that sidewalk arm in arm, so wrapped up in each other's presence that they most likely believed that the world existed only for them Eiri couldn't help but wonder. Does he whisper in her ear while she sleeps, professing his undying love to her, before leaving her bed and returning to his home, to his wife and children, to the family that fulfills the need in him that his young beauty cannot? Does she lock herself in her bathroom, weeping, lamenting the fact that she was only second best to him, that for as long as he had them, she would never be able to make a claim on his heart?

All that thinking became tiresome. He was certainly in no position to judge other people's happiness. The endless trail of failed relationships behind him was proof of that. Perhaps it was possible to be satisfied in a compromised relationship. Perhaps he was the foolish one, for senselessly holding all those women to a standard that was just humanly impossible to meet outside of those silly love stories that he wrote.

Damn, that girl was absolutely right. One who had never felt even an ounce of satisfaction with another had no right to write such things.

~

"How did your appointment go?" Tohma asked some time later as he and his wife drove back to their home.

"Good, the doctor found a heartbeat on the ultrasound, so everything is looking great." Mika answered, unable to mask the smile of utter joy on her face.

Tohma smiled as well. He couldn't recall ever seeing Mika that happy. "That's wonderful. I should call that decorator I know to start working on the nursery soon."

The smile still did not disappear as Mika then changed the subject. "Eiri knew, didn't he? He had this knowing smirk on his face the whole time."

Tohma laughed nervously. "He guessed on his own, I didn't encourage him in any way."

Mika laughed as well. "I can't say that I'm surprised. That boy is just so damn observant, it's not possible to keep anything from him."

Tohma reached his hand over to grasp Mika's warmly. "He gets that from the sister that raised him."

"Something happened between the two of you, didn't it?"

"I kissed him." Tohma said as he looked directly at his wife, his warm demeanor immediately hardening.

"You kissed him?" Mika looked stunned, and couldn't pull away from her husband's eyes.

"Yes, we were having a heated discussion in the car, and I suppose I lost control. I wanted to apologize to you for that, and I would like to assure you that it won't happen again."

Mika sighed. She didn't know what to think or how to feel. She wanted honesty, and her husband had never been anything other than completely truthful with her. But she really didn't need to hear that confession. She felt as if she were punched in the gut. She couldn't breathe.

"Mika?" Tohma became concerned, as his wife said nothing. She just sat in the passenger side seat and stared stonily straight ahead. Suddenly, he noticed that she blanched.

"Pull over!" She said abruptly.

He did, and she threw the door open and leaded over the edge, and promptly threw up. Gasping heavily, almost sobbing between every violent heave.

Tohma did all he could at that moment, leaning over the drivers seat to grasp his wife's shoulders firmly, to gently hold her hair back for her, to plead softly, "I'm sorry." over and over.

"I'm okay." She said a few moments later, as she pulled out a tissue from her purse and wiped her mouth. "Baby hormones." She explained.

Tohma studied her for a moment, after she had regained her composure and stared straight ahead, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. He wasn't convinced that everything was okay, but he didn't want to push the issue any further. He didn't want to upset her again.

"I'm fine." Mika said, trying to reassure her husband. "Let's just go home."

And he did.

~

Eiri let himself into his apartment, and his eyes immediately caught sight of his houseguest lying on his stomach in front of the television set. He opened his mouth to scold the boy for still being in his home after he specifically told him to contact whoever it was who was looking after him and leave, but then he noticed that the boy's pale, slender body was clothed in nothing except the bath towel that he let him use earlier.

"You're late." Shuichi commented, as he turned his head to look at Eiri. The boy couldn't help but smile sweetly. It was getting lonely being in that cold, empty apartment all by himself.

Eiri suddenly realized that he was staring at Shuichi; his mouth was still open from before, when he was meaning to yell at the boy. Embarrassed at himself, he clamped his mouth shut and met the pink-hair street kid's gaze with his own hardened glare. "I was feeling a little restless." He explained, unsure as to why he felt like giving Shuichi an explanation in the first place. It wasn't as if the boy meant anything to him in the first place. "So I took a walk instead."

"Ah." Shuichi commented, seemingly satisfied with the answer, and then turned his attention back to the television program.

Eiri sighed, feeling that he should say something. "Where are your clothes?" He asked lamely.

"I felt like taking another shower." Shuichi simply explained.

"Ah." He accepted the explanation, not really in the mood to argue. He removed his shoes and jacket and made his way to the bathroom.

"I'm so happy you're finally home. You've been gone so long! And it's almost dark out, and I was beginning to get hungry"

"Oh, so you can't feed yourself if you're not swiping other people's food or picking through people's leftovers?" Eiri asked as he switched on the lights and had the breath knocked out of him. The bathroom looked like a complete disaster area. A good 1cm film of water covered the entire floor, clothes and towels flung around haphazardly to soak up the mess.

"I'm not a very good cook and I was afraid that you'd"

"Good Lord, don't you have even a shred of civility within you?" Eiri spat as he stormed back into the living area to confront Shuichi. He held up a soaked towel, in case that idiot needed prompting as to why he was upset.

"I'm sorry, I haven't"

"Of course not! And now you're going to tell me that none of those people that took care of you even attempted to train you in the art of living like a civilized human being? Is that it?"

"I was going to clean up! You came home just before I was about to do it!" Shuichi tried to explain as he leaped to his feet and ran over to Eiri, trying to grab the wet towel from him. Eiri quickly pulled his hand away to thwart that attempt.

"And you want me to take you in. To let you live here." Eiri taunted. "What could you possibly offer me? You can't cook, you can't clean, you can barely take care of yourself, and not to mention the fact that you're a compete basket case. Why the hell should I let you live here?"

Shuichi felt as if he were slapped again and again with every word that came out of Eiri's mouth. But he really couldn't argue with any of it.

"Well, aren't you going to say anything at all? Aren't you going to even attempt to stand up for yourself, you're such a weak, pathetic little boy!"

Shuichi turned his head to avoid looking directly at those frightening hazel eyes. "You can sleep with me, if you want to."

"What was that?" Eiri said, almost laughing.

"You can sleep with me if you want." Shuichi repeated, this time slowly turning his head to look at Eiri once again.

Once he caught sight of the boy's eyes, Eiri let the towel drop from his hand, letting the wet fabric slop to the hardwood floor below. Neither man spoke for a few moments.

Eiri resisted the urge to tease the boy. He didn't trust himself to reach out to touch that pale, thin boy before him. So he toyed with Shuichi visibly, studying the boy with his eyes only. "You're willing to exchange your body in order for me to let you stay here?" Eiri asked, smirking wickedly.

Shuichi blushed furiously. "Yes." He answered.

Eiri began to doubt his own sanity as his hand, seemingly on its own accord, reached out to grab the towel that was wrapped loosely around the boy's waist, and unfastened it to let it fall to the floor as well. He shouldn't have wanted that. He couldn't have wanted that, and especially not with Shuichi, a goddamn runaway, who had probably been with more men than a two bit street whore.

"You're offering me this." Eiri whispered, still unable to pull his eyes away from the thin, nude form in front of him.

"Yes." Shuichi repeated.

A flash of red between the boy's thighs knocked Eiri back to reality. That tattoo

"Sorry but I'm not interested in men." Eiri said as he finally found the strength to avert his eyes from the slight body before him. He then turned around and walked away, "Get some clothes on. I'll make some dinner." He added before disappearing into the kitchen, leaving a very stunned Shuichi standing cold, naked, and vulnerable in his wake.

  
TBC


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation  
A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this part out! I kind of reached a block in that I did not like how the story was progressing so I put it on hiatus until I planned this further. Sorry ~_~. 

  
Koneko  
By Anahita (psychobishojo@aol.com)

Chapter 6

  
_"Admit it." The voice in the darkness taunted._

_"You're wrong." Eiri replied, using all of his energy to hold his ground and not let himself fall apart before it. He hated being weak around it. _

_"I don't think I am. I saw what happened out there. It took every ounce of your strength to keep from jumping his body when he offered himself to you."_

_"He just took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting him to whore himself out to me like that. That's all!"_

_"You say that, but we both know the truth as it stands! You and I are quite alike, just as I've always maintained that."_

_"I don't want him."_

_"Sure you do! And I can't really blame you either. He is a cute one. A little skinny for my tastes, but appealing, nonetheless."_

_"I don't want him. You can have him."_

_"Although I appreciate the offer, Eiri-kun, that's a bit hard in my dead state, don't you think?"_

_"Well then go and take over his mind and leave me the fuck alone!"_

_"I can't do that. You and I are one."_

_"Fuck you!"_

_"It's true, and despite what you think of it, I love you. Even in death I still love you. You can't possibly imagine how much I love you!"_

_"Go away."_

_"I won't."_

_"I thought I fucking killed you. Why are you still here?"_

_"Because I'm still alive within you, can't you see? It is only when you forget about me that I'll truly be dead, and you won't forget will you, Eiri-kun?"_

_"You're nothing to me."_

_"Don't say that. I know you don't mean it."_

_"I do. Go away."_

_"It breaks my heart to hear you say that. Why do you shun me like this?"_

_"I have no use for you."_

_"You do. You just don't realize it yet."_

_"Leave."_

_"Not unless you truly want me gone."_

_"Stop this."_

_"I love you, Eiri-kun."_

_"STOP!"_

_"With all my being, I love you. As long as I exist, I will love you."_

_"Leave Please. If you love me as you say, you will stop tormenting me like this!"_

_"I can't leave. When will you understand that I am one with you, and only by killing that part of yourself will you be free of me?"_

_"Then please stop talking. Let me sleep."_

_"You don't want to sleep. Deep down you're afraid that if you break this bond that exists between us now, you'll never find me again, isn't that right?"_

_"I just want to be in peace."_

_"Because you love me as I love you, isn't it?"_

_"Let me sleep."_

_"Please let me stay with you. I love being with you."_

_"Leave me alone."_

_"You never denied that. Is it true?"_

_"No. Leave me alone."_

_"Please don't push me away. Then I'll truly be dead to you and we both know that it's the last thing that you want."_

_"FUCK! JUST LET ME SLEEP!!!"_

"Yuki!!!" A voice from afar brought him out of his slumber and tore away the murky veil of that dream away from his eyes. A dream. It was only a dream And yet somehow, he knew that already.

"Yuki, are you all right?" That voice again, strangely familiar and yet so very different than anything he had ever heard in his life. And then a touch to accompany that voice, as Eiri was aware of a hand on his arm. He was still confused so he did not respond in any way for a couple of minutes. Instead he only took care to regain his senses. He blinked a couple of times to focus his vision to the cold and darkened room which was only illumined be the light of the hallway that shone through his semi-ajar bedroom door, and then he saw the source of that voice which called him back to the realm of consciousness.

It was the boy, Shuichi. He was sitting on the edge of his bed with a hand placed lightly on his forearm. And the knowledge of that had the similar effect of fire coursing through his veins. It confused him. Why did he feel such profound physical effects whenever the boy was near? And yet those questions quickly slipped through his mind and were soon forgotten. They seemed so mundane and unimportant compared to the sensation that his mind was currently processing. His lips pressing against those of the boy

He must have lost his mind for even considering that But his body had complete control and ignored any objection that his mind threw in its way. Like the fact that the boy was most likely a dirty slut who was probably passed around to every man in Toyko who showed the slightest bit of interest. But he could not have been dirty! He smelled so clean And his skin tasted anything but filthy. And he could not stop kissing it and tasting it.

And there was also the fact that Eiri wasn't gay, that he only dated women and really had no reason to want that thin, unfeminine and quite obviously very male person in his bed. Eiri's mind tried to voice its objection using that excuse as well, but failed yet again. Eiri couldn't stop kissing Shuichi, and Shuichi was kissing him back just as fervently. Every time that Eiri tried to break the kiss to pull away, to shoo the brat out of his bed and scold him for meddling in affairs that were not of his concern, he found himself inexplicitly drawn to those pretty lips again, and again. He did not want to stop kissing the boy. Those full lips, the pale, almost translucent skin on his shoulder, Eiri wanted to consume him all. 

And yet suddenly he pulled away and stared into those blue-violet eyes. He wanted Shuichi, and despite the fact that Shuichi offered him his body, he wanted to see exactly that boy was thinking before he went any further. 

"Yuki" The boy whispered hoarsely. "Please don't make me leave." He pleaded.

"Idiot." Eiri replied breathlessly and lowered his head again to indulge in another kiss.

~

Apparently that ghost was correct. They were quite alike in many ways.

~

He had lost his mind Eiri thought as he lay in bed and looked over at the sleeping companion. When he stirred, the boy began to awaken as well.

"Yuki" The boy mumbled sleepily as he pressed his body against Eiri's and snuggled close.

Eiri closed his eyes and breathed deeply. That was quite a nasty situation he found himself embroiled in at that moment. He was not sure how exactly that happened in the first place, that he let his muddled and confused mind allow him to have sex with someone that he usually wouldn't give the time of day to! Whatever had gotten into him? And yet he could not deny how nice that felt, lying there with a warm body beside him. It had been a while since he had sex. Perhaps he was so desperate to do it with anyone that he lost his senses there. He sighed. Even attempting to rationalize what had happened the night before did not help ease the feeling of unease that loomed about him on that awkward morning after.

"Yuki Thank you." Shuichi mumbled as he sat up in bed and stretched his weary limbs.

Eiri did not reply. Instead he looked away. Much to his dismay, the brat's body was having the same effect on him then as it did the night before. What had he gotten himself involved in?

Eiri climbed out of bed. "I'm going to take a shower." He said, and he was not exactly sure what prompted him to say it in the first place.

"Yuki, wait!" The pink haired teenager grabbed the blond man's wrist.

Eiri froze as he felt the boy's hand on him again. "We're nothing to each other." Eiri said through clenched teeth, and then he shuddered. What was the matter with him? "Don't get the wrong idea just because I slept with you." He spat in a tone of voice so chilling that it conveyed its point clearly. Shuichi removed his hand and watched his sullen master as he made his way out of the room.

That Yuki person was hard to crack, Shuichi thought to himself as he watched the man disappear out of the room. He wondered if the blond man realized that the words that he did not bother to speak said volumes more than those that he did vocalize?

He heard the faint sound of the water running in the background and smiled to himself. It was nice though, having a sense of warmth and familiarity around him. And with that thought, he let himself fall asleep once again.

~

"You're finally awake? I thought you were dead." Eiri commented. He was sitting at the small table in his spacious kitchen when Shuichi finally joined him some hour and a half later.

"I'm sorry, I was really tired for some reason."

Eiri smirked. "Sorry to have kept you up."

Shuichi blushed. "Oh no, it wasn't that!" Eiri shook his head, and found himself quite amused. What possible reason did he have for being bashful? "Your breakfast smells good" Shuichi commented as he sat across from the writer to watch him eat.

Eiri rolled his eyes. "I made enough for two. Help yourself."

Shuichi smiled and once he had procured permission took some food from the serving plates there.

The silence was horribly awkward between them. Eiri was torn between feeling satiated and disgusted from the fact that he felt some pleasure from having sex with that brat. A brat he found on the streets on less! It was just another sign of the degradation of his character, no doubt. But he could not complain too much. At least he got some sex out of it.

"So how old are you?" Eiri asked.

"Hm?" Shuichi asked as his mouth was packed with food.

"I figure that since we slept together, I might as well learn a bit about you." Eiri explained.

"Nineteen." He answered.

"Don't speak with your mouth full!" Eiri scolded. Shuichi nodded. "Where are you from?"

Shuichi swallowed. "Tokyo."

'Why were you living in the streets? How many men have you been with? What do you want from me? Why won't you leave? Who the hell are you?' Eiri looked down at his half-eaten breakfast as so many questions ran through his mind threatening to drive him mad.

"But they sent me somewhere else when I was thirteen. I don't know where but I came back here looking for someone who helped me before."

"Do you know his name?"

Shuichi shook his head. "I don't think he ever told me what it was, actually."

"How unfortunate."

"Yuki?"

"What is it?"

"Thank you."

"Yeah, you thanked me earlier." Eiri stood up and cleaned up his breakfast dishes. He tried to mask it, but the fact was that being around that boy was quite unnerving to him. What did he get himself into?

He needed to find a way out. Being with some seriously troubled boy was quite possibly the last thing he needed. "I'm going out." He announced. "I have a meeting today." He lied. He had nowhere to go or see. He just needed to get away to think about how to get himself out of that mess.

"Okay, be back soon." Shuichi said.

"Don't touch anything that appears remotely interesting while I'm gone." Eiri said as he grabbed his jacket and pulled out the keys to his car and then froze as he felt the boy's hand on his shoulder yet again. "What do you?" His question was interrupted as Shuichi stood on his toes and kissed him.

And Eiri returned that kiss.

  
TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation 

  
Koneko  
By Anahita (psychobishojo@aol.com)

  
Chapter 7

_Something isn't right  
A possible chromosomal abnormality_

That was all she heard. Other words were spoken, but those were the only words that Mika recalled hearing out of the otherwise elaborate medical explanation that the young male technician who administered the ultrasound offered her. She didn't say anything. She simply stared blankly at the young man who looked younger than herself, and occasionally nodded to give the impression that she was actually listening when in actuality she wanted to scream, she wanted to curse the universe for its cruelty in subjecting her to this yet again.

This was not supposed to happen. Everything was fine two weeks ago, how could this have happened?

The room was freezing, how could that boy wearing the short-sleeved shirt stand it? And why was he still going on like that? He had just told his patient that the child growing within her had a good chance of being flawed or being damaged somehow, and he was going on about it like it was as inconsequential as a stomach ache?

Mika hated it. She hated everything about that room. She hated the sterility, she hated the smell of medicine everywhere, she hated all of the fucking posters displaying diagrams of pregnant women that decorated a wall, and what they would look like during various stages of development. Mika wondered if the child within her looked like any of those, a little tadpole swimming in his watery home, the size of a peanut really. How was it possible to see something wrong on something so small? She hated the fucking hospital. It was nothing but a center to deliver death, nothing more.

_"There are no explainable causes. Maybe you just need to relax, and it'll happen And there's no rush, you're still young. You have plenty of time ahead of you to start a family!"_

__

_"I'm sorry, Miss, there is no heartbeat"_

__

_"Everything's looking perfect so far. Now you just have to worry about sitting back and enjoying the rest of the pregnancy."_

__

_"Something isn't right"_

__

_"Possible abnormality I'll have to have someone else take a look at these pictures first But what it looks like is"_

No heartbeat, miscarriage, unexplained infertility, possible chromosomal abnormality, and now the technician was mentioning something about follow up testing was required as soon as possible just in case a termination was desired if an abnormality was confirmed. Dead babies, an empty crib sitting in the corner of an empty, half-furnished room, yet another opportunity that slipped out of her hands.

The one role in life that she was given on account of her being born a female - to grow and nurture life within her body, and she wasn't able to even do that. She was a failure as a woman. She was a failure as a mother. It was not a surprise to her that her husband did not even want her.

She hated her cursed existence.

~

Mika stepped out into the waiting room where her brother awaited. Even though he wore his sunglasses - he hated being recognized in places where a number of women were to be found - sure enough, he sat in a far corner with a newspaper concealing everything but his legs and the hands that held it up. Mika smiled sadly. She was grateful that Eiri agreed to accompany her while her husband Tohma was out of the country on business. It was hard enough for her a few weeks ago, but she managed that because she knew that even if she was given bad news, Tohma would still be close by. He would only be a phone call away, really - but not this time.

"Let's go." She said to her brother as she threw on her coat clumsily, hoping that Eiri wouldn't see that her hands were shaking, and she looked down at her feet as she walked out of the office. She hated having to march her barren, child-repelling body in the room filled with women so big that they threatened to burst at the seams. 

"How did it go?" Eiri asked as he followed his sister out of the building.

"Fine" She lied. "I'm a little tired, please take me home."

Eiri did not say a word as he followed Mika to her car. The way her voice cracked betrayed that the appointment did not go 'fine' at all. And then as she sat down in the passenger seat of her car, Eiri said nothing. He simply made his way to the driver side and accepted the keys from his sister.

~

There were a lot of important looking documents hanging up on the gray walls of that room where his master usually kept himself when he was home. Shuichi gently touched at the glass that encased them. He wasn't sure what they said, since his reading was quite rusty, but they looked like they meant a lot to that guy. Yuki didn't seem to like many things in life other than junk food, beer and cigarettes, Shuichi thought. He ran a hand against the glass reverently, staring curiously at the awards in front of him.

No, Yuki didn't find much pleasure in the world, but it appeared as if everything he did hold dear to him was in that otherwise sparsely-furnished study. His books were there and his computer, a lamp, a high-back chair, and those papers that he hung up on the wall. And there was one other thing, a small picture frame saying face down on the left-hand side of the laptop - the opposite side of where the mouse lay. Curiously, Shuichi picked it up to look at it. He wanted to know everything about that strange man who took him in and acted so cold and uncaring and yet treated him so lovingly when they slept.

He let Shuichi share his bed with him sometimes. It was nice. Sleeping next to a warm body, feeling the blond man's heart beating when the man would hold him and cradle his head against his slight chest, Shuichi never recalled ever knowing anyone like that

He turned over that picture frame that he held in his hands and studied it. Within its glass enclosure, it held the memory of a boy who appeared to be sixteen or seventeen, with blond hair, slight build, and glasses. It appeared to be Yuki but he was smiling, and that was not something that he could recall seeing Yuki ever do! And there was a man there; he looked a little older, as if he was the same age that Yuki was currently. He was sitting there with his arm around the boy's shoulder; he had a cold and insincere smile on his face as if he was only going through the motions. He even looked a little disgusted

A sudden wave of negative emotions washed over Shuichi just then. It was so profound that he placed the photo back down in its usual resting position on the writer's desk, and he stood there for a moment or two, simply stunned, as he tried to regain his composure. Why did that happen? He thought to himself.

~

"I thought I told you to take me home?" Mika pursed her lips, scowling as she muttered her disapproval while she and Eiri walked through the wide, mostly empty halls of the museum. Even in her muted tone of voice, she could hear an echo.

"Something's bothering you, so I figured that I'd take you to the museum first, just like you liked to do those times when I was a kid." Her brother replied, explaining why he took a detour and brought them to the museum.

Confused, Mika cocked an eyebrow. "I didn't like the museum. I brought you here all these times because I thought you liked the museum!"

Eiri chuckled as they approached a marble bench and he sat down on it. "Ah the beauty of communication, it must be a family trait."

"The least you could have done was telling me in the first place so I wouldn't have wasted your time!" Mika said, scolding her brother in response to that new revelation that had just been made aware of.

"What happened today?" Eiri asked, changing the subject.

Mika shook her head. She did not have the energy to discuss that, especially with her emotionally fragile younger brother. It was her job to protect him, after all. She couldn't fall apart.

After a long moment of tense silence, Eiri continued to press the subject. "Is it the same as last time?" He asked, carefully guarding his words in order to keep from upsetting her further.

Mika shook her head again. "Not the same but I have to go for more tests to see if everything is working like it should."

"Ah." He said nothing further. He wasn't good at comforting people, even if the other person was his own sister dealing with the threat of losing another pregnancy.

"You know, whatever happened in my previous life, I really hope that I got some fun out of it." Mika said, pitifully as she sat down on that bench, next to Eiri.

Eiri laughed sympathetically. "Yeah, you and me both, sister." And he placed his arm around her and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

~

It was late when he arrived home, and found himself greeted with almost all of the lights turned on, as was the television set, turned up on a high volume, offering it's entertainment to an empty living room, as his houseguest was nowhere to be found - just like usual. Eiri sighed as he underwent his nightly ritual of turning off the extra lights and the television set. He considered scolding the boy again, but he was too tired to bother with that. Instead, he made his way to the room where he was sure that he would find him.

And sure enough, he was there, as usual. Eiri went in the bathroom to find the kid lying in the tub that was nearly overflowing with soap suds.

"Why is it that I can never have the bathroom to myself whenever I get home?" Eiri said in a tone of voice that said fatigue more than annoyance.

"I'll be out in a second."

"Don't forget to clean up after yourself."

"Hey Yuki, can I sleep in your bed tonight?"

Eiri blushed. "Sorry, I'm really tired tonight, some other time, perhaps."

Shuichi giggled. "You always blush when I ask you that Why? You know that you have nothing to be ashamed of. You're really good, you know that?"

Eiri blushed deeper.

"You're the only person that has ever made it feel good." The pink-haired brat explained, embarrassing the writer further.

"Yeah, you probably say that too all your masters!" Eiri said sarcastically. Shuichi flinched and it was his turn to blush. 

Eiri smirked. At least he succeeded in shutting him up. "Anyway, I bought this for you." Eiri said as he pulled out a small, gray cell phone out of his coat pocket and placed it on the bathroom counter, next to the sink. "I know you don't like answering the phone, so I got you this in case I need to call you for whatever reason."

Shuichi looked up at the man, the beautiful blond man who always had a way of making his heart beat faster, even now, when he wasn't even looking at him He was so difficult to read sometimes "Thank you, Yuki." Shuichi said, smiling warmly.

"But anyway, goodnight" Eiri turned and began to walk out of the bathroom. He paused when he reached the doorway. "I'll leave the door open for you. Try not to wake me up, okay?" And without waiting for a response, he walked out of the small bathroom and closed the door behind him.

And as Shuichi lay there in the cooling bathwater, staring at the door and silently yearning for the presence of his master - no, Yuki, he corrected. As he sat there and thought about how he could please him and let him know exactly what effect meeting him had on his life The cell phone rang.

TBC


End file.
